Choudhury: We Defended For Our Lives

- Leicester City were 2-1 winners over West Bromwich Albion at King Power Stadium
- Wilfred Ndidi and Jamie Vardy were on the scoresheet in a huge victory
- Hamza Choudhury was the hero at the opposite end, protecting City's lead
- The Academy graduate spoke honestly about the challenge which Leicester are overcoming 

That success over the Baggies put City back on top of the Sky Bet Championship with three games to play, currently holding a four-point lead over third place in the race for promotion.

Wilfred Ndidi's opener was followed by Jamie Vardy's header, but Jed Wallace's strike later on - a reward for the visitors' pressure throughout - made it a nervous finish on Filbert Way.

Choudhury was in sensational defensive form for the Foxes, making a serious of last-ditch interventions and goal-line clearances to see Enzo Maresca's men through. They host Southampton at King Power Stadium on Tuesday.

"It’s an amazing day for all the lads in there," the Academy graduate said afterwards. "They deserve it. Honestly, the last couple of months have been tough. It’s been a different kind of challenge for us and we’ve had to dig deep.

"I think the Manager said that we’ve had a couple of internal meetings with the players and the staff to just get us off this track of losing games. The gaffer said before the game that we can have two plans, plan A and plan B, but at the end of the day, sometimes we’ve got to show our heart – and I think the lads showed that today.

"I can’t tell you how much it means to all the lads in there. I know our style of football, it might look to the fans like we don’t care and we don’t want to score, but I can’t tell you how much every single one of them care in there.

"You should see how it is in there (after a defeat), especially after the Plymouth one. It hurt us so, so bad. We showed how much we care and how much we want to make everyone proud, getting promoted and winning the league.

"We always want to only worry about ourselves. We’ve given ourselves a little bit of a cushion, but it’s always been about us. Each game’s been about us. We’ve got three games left and hopefully nine points to follow."

Efforts from Mikey Johnston and Yann M'Vila were both thwarted on the line by the 26-year-old, protecting a crucial three points.

"Right-back’s still a little bit new to me, but as a defender, once the ball gets passed, you get round and help your ‘keeper out," he explained. "We’re a back-four and the ‘keeper – and Winky (Harry Winks) – we’re all one big unit. We defend for each other. We help each other out and that’s what I tried my best to do.

"Luckily I had some quick reactions and got it off the line (for Johnston's shot). It’s not just me. Wout [Faes] made a couple of amazing blocks in there in the second half. It means so much to us and we’ve got one final push to get the job done.

"It was instinctive (to deny M'Vila) Especially when you’re younger, you play all over the pitch and you’ve got to put your body on the line sometimes. That’s what I did."

Choudhury also admitted that every player will be dealing with nerves at this stage of a campaign, all the more reason to praise them for battling through to victory on Saturday.

"For sure, everybody player does," he added. "There’s a saying that 2-0 is never a safe scoreline and it’s happened to us a couple of times this season. We’ve been leading games late and we’ve not managed to hold out.

"Again that’s something we’ve spoken about in there. We’ve got a lot of experienced players in there who have played at the very highest level and we spoke about how to get the best out of each other.

"Today we did that. We played the game, we played clever, and we defended for our lives."

With Southampton due in the East Midlands on Tuesday, Leicester supporters will be keeping a close eye on results elsewhere to determine what the permutations of that clash with Russell Martin's men will entail. Choudhury, though, knows it'll be tough.

"Every game’s a tough game in this league, as we know," Choudhury said. "Southampton are a very good side and they’re on a good run, but coming to our stadium, our patch, hopefully we can show what we can do to get those three points."